At present, China's water resources are facing a shortage. However, the half-moon reporter's investigation found that in some water-scarce cities, a large amount of high-quality tap water is used for green irrigation, road cleaning, construction dust reduction, etc. In some cities, the utilization rate of reclaimed water, which is regarded as solving the problem of water shortage and water pollution, is low, and even directly discharged into the river.
Good water is difficult to use, and tap water consumption is amazing
The National Water Conservation Action Plan jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources in 2019 requires that urban ecological landscapes, industrial production, urban greening, road cleaning, vehicle flushing and building construction should give priority to the use of reclaimed water (water that meets different water quality standards after treatment and meets the corresponding use functions). In some water-scarce cities, the reporter found that in reality, urban ecological landscape, green irrigation, road cleaning, and construction consume a lot of tap water.
At the construction site of a major road expansion project in a large city in central China, the person in charge of the construction told the reporter that the tap water used for dust suppression and dust reduction exceeded 4,700 tons per month during the construction of the project. "According to our estimates, the city's annual tap water for greening and irrigation, road cleaning, construction dust reduction and other purposes is about 7 million tons, which is equivalent to the annual water consumption of about 2025,900 families of three. If this situation does not change, this figure will exceed <> million tons by <>. A cadre of the city's water bureau said that tap water is used to water flowers, wash the floor and reduce dust, and it is a big waste to not achieve optimal water use.
Similar phenomena are not uncommon. In a city in the east, tap water has accounted for about 85% of the total amount used for public greening watering and municipal road sanitation and cleaning in recent years, and in 2019, the city's municipal road flushing consumed 1200 million tons of water, of which about 1020.<> million tons of tap water was used.
Embarrassing reclaimed water utilization
Grassroots sanitation workers admits that the difficulty of using reclaimed water is an important reason for the large consumption of tap water. In a water-scarce city in central China, a cadre of the local garden and sanitation department told Banyuetan that the city's urban reclaimed water reuse project did not begin construction until 2020, and the relevant facilities and equipment were in the trial operation stage for a long time after the completion of the relevant facilities and equipment, and the amount of reclaimed water and water intake points available were very limited. "We want to use it too, but we don't need it at the moment."
The use path is single, or even directly "drained out of the river". In a central province, the statistics provided by the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department of the province in 2020 and 2021 show that the reclaimed water application fields assessed include five items, including urban miscellaneous use, industry, landscape environment, green area irrigation, and agricultural irrigation. However, according to statistics, in 5, the reclaimed water used for landscape environment (including river replenishment) in the eight water-scarce cities in the province accounted for about 2021% of the total, while the three water uses for urban miscellaneous use, industry and green space irrigation accounted for only 8.95%, 3% and 0.6% of the total respectively, and the water used for agricultural irrigation was zero.
"On the one hand, a large amount of reclaimed water produced with money is discharged, and on the other hand, there is no water available if you want to use reclaimed water in the fields of gardening, sanitation, and urban miscellaneous use." A water bureau official in the province lamented. It is understood that the province currently produces 1 ton of reclaimed water at a cost between 0.6 yuan and 1.8 yuan, and according to the province's 2021 reclaimed water utilization of 7 million tons, the production of reclaimed water that year cost about 8 billion yuan.
A grassroots water bureau cadre told Banyuetan that at present, many cities use reclaimed water for "landscape environment", river replenishment accounts for a large proportion, and a large part of the amount of water used for river replenishment exceeds the ecological water replenishment demand of water bodies, "these reclaimed water replenished in excess of demand is ineffective use."
Reclaimed water usage figures are questionable. The reporter's investigation learned that the construction of reclaimed water treatment projects in urban areas in some places is lagging behind, and some have almost no ability to produce reclaimed water. However, local reported data show that the local reclaimed water utilization has reached tens of millions of tons for several consecutive years. In this regard, the person in charge of the water conservation department explained that they counted the amount of Grade A tail water discharged by some sewage treatment plants as recycled water utilization, and these tail water was first discharged into the inland river on the outskirts of the city, and then flowed into another large river. "We believe that this tailwater has been naturally purified by the river to meet the standards for the use of reclaimed water."
Facilities and pipe networks related to the production and utilization of reclaimed water have not been used. According to the staff of the local urban construction department, most of the reclaimed water is produced by using the sewage treatment plant to treat the standard discharge sewage, if the sewage treatment facilities are not built or built without use, then the production and utilization of reclaimed water cannot be discussed.
In November 2020, an ecological and environmental protection inspection in a southwestern province found that a sewage treatment plant that cost more than 11 million yuan to build had been idle for a long time, resulting in the direct discharge of domestic sewage from the surrounding people for many years. In a water-scarce city in East China, the reporter also learned that there are currently three reclaimed water transmission pipe networks in the urban area of the city, one of which has not been used for a long time since its completion in 3000.
Make reclaimed water the most productive
Water conservation is a priority. "Tap water is not 'tap', it is high-quality water that is expensive to produce and should be used where it is really needed." The relevant person in charge of the garden management office of a city in central China suggested that combined with the current situation of water shortage in China, widely carry out water-saving publicity, so that the awareness of water-saving will be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. At the same time, those areas where tap water waste and large consumption are included in the assessment of water-saving effectiveness, and a perfect mechanism is used to guide water-using units and front-line operators to love and save water.
Promote the promotion and utilization of alternative water. From the perspective of international experience, the development and utilization of unconventional water resources, including sewage recycling, is an important way to save water. Fuyang City, Anhui Province began to explore and promote the use of reclaimed water many years ago and achieved good results. "Scientifically plan the layout, promote the construction of reclaimed water infrastructure, gradually expand the coverage, and ensure that water is available; In addition, it is necessary to improve the assessment mechanism, guided by the actual utilization effect, so that the reclaimed water can be used properly. Peng Bo, head of the public utilities section of the Fuyang Urban and Rural Development Bureau, said that the reclaimed water treatment facilities and pipe networks should be planned and integrated in the process of urban construction, and the construction of reclaimed water treatment facilities and pipe networks should be promoted through a combination of government leadership and social participation, and a scientific reclaimed water utilization assessment mechanism should be established to avoid policy implementers from ignoring practical results in order to complete the assessment.
Make rational use of market mechanisms to allow more users to accept reclaimed water. "The cost per ton for enterprises to access natural river and lake water may be only a few cents, but the cost of using reclaimed water will increase several times." Cao Shuqing, a researcher at the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, said that the cost of using reclaimed water is not only much higher than natural river and lake water, but sometimes even higher than tap water, and many users are reluctant to use reclaimed water in order to reduce costs and ensure water quality. "It is necessary to use the market mechanism to narrow the price gap between reclaimed water and other water sources, so that more high-water consumption units can choose reclaimed water." (Half moon talk reporter: Jin Jian)